“We have to address the situation in the marketplace,” DeLauro said at a press conference on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. “Right now, the least expensive beverages are often those with the least value to our health like regular cola or juice drinks that are only 10 percent juice.

“But I will tell you that if you’re paying $3.49 for juice and 79 cents for soda, if you are in a low-income family and you have to stretch the dollar, you don’t need a rocket scientist to tell you what you’re going to buy,” DeLauro said. “You’re going to go for the 79 cents.

“And maybe, quite frankly,” she said, “one of the things that we ought to look at and one of the things we ought to consider is a soda tax.

“Maybe we ought to look at that amongst several other areas that we are looking at in terms of nutrition,” she said.

“Look, the point is: This is a critical, critical issue,” DeLauro said. “We need to work together. And I, really, I beg you for your energy and your interest in all of this right now.”